Literary Calendar

7 P.M. First Lady Laura Bush and daughter Jenna Bush sign copies of their new children's picture book, Read All About It! (illustrated by Denise Brunkus), at Books-A-Million, 1451 Chain Bridge Rd., McLean, Va., 703-893-7640. They will also sign books on Friday, April 25, at 7 p.m. at Borders Books-14th St., 14th & F Sts. NW, 202-737-1385.

7:30 P.M. Former White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers discusses and signs her new book, Why Women Should Rule the World, at the Friendship Heights Village Center, 4433 S. Park Ave., Chevy Chase, Md., 301-656-2797.

27 SUNDAY

10 A.M. Diane Rehm, host of the NPR program "The Diane Rehm Show" and author of the memoirs Finding My Voice and Toward Commitment: A Dialogue about Marriage, discusses her life and work as part of "The Sunday Forum: Critical Issues in the Light of Faith," a weekly series held prior to the 11:15 a.m. service at the Washington National Cathedral, hosted by Dean Sam Lloyd. The cathedral is located at Wisconsin & Massachusetts Aves. NW; for details, visit http://www.nationalcathedral.org.

1 P.M. Philip Bobbitt, a professor of federal jurisprudence at Columbia University, discusses and signs Terror and Consent: The Wars for the Twenty-First Century at Politics and Prose Bookstore, 202-364-1919. [Read the review on page 2.]

NATIONAL POETRY MONTH

Thursday, April 24

6:45 P.M. Poets Mark Strand, author of the new collection Man and Camel, and Charles Wright, author of Scar Tissue and the forthcoming Littlefoot: A Poem, read from their work at the Library of Congress, James Madison Bldg., Montpeilier Room, 101 Independence Ave. SE, 202-707-5394.

7 P.M. Michael Collier, the former Maryland Poet Laureate and author of The Ledge and Dark Wild Realm, reads from and chats about his work at the Hyattsville Branch Library, 6530 Adelphi Rd., Hyattsville, Md., 410-685-4187.

Saturday, April 26

2 P.M. Native American poet Sherwin Bitsui, author of the collection Shapeshift, reads from his work as part of the "Native Writers Series" at the National Museum of the American Indian, Rasmuson Theater, Fourth St. & Independence Ave. SW. For details, visit http://www.americanindian.si.edu.

SPECIAL NOTICES

Garry Wills, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and writer, reflects on Thomas Eakins's painting "William Rush Carving His Allegorical Figure of the Schuylkill River," the third lecture in the American Pictures Distinguished Lecture Series, on Saturday, April 26, at 4:30 p.m. This four-part series, sponsored by Washington College, the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, will be held in the Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium, Reynolds Center for American Art & Portraiture (which serves both museums), Eighth & F Sts. NW. Free tickets are available starting at 3:30 p.m.; doors open at 4 p.m. For details, visit http://www.reynoldscenter.org.

April 24 is the official launch of D.C.'s Big Read '08, part of the National Endowment for the Arts' initiative to encourage communities to read and discuss the same book over a one-month period. D.C.'s selection is F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. For a complete listing of upcoming readings, workshops and the like, visit http://www.dchumanities.org or call 202-387-8391.

Madison Smartt Bell, Dee Dee Myers, Glenn Kessler, Walter Isaacson, Tom Oliphant, Jan Crawford Greenberg and Ben Wittes are a few of the authors slated to be at the 2008 Annapolis Book Festival, being held on Saturday, April 26, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., on the campus of the Key School, 534 Hillsmere Dr. in Annapolis, Md. For complete details, visit http://www.keyschool.org or call Irfan Latimer at 410-263-9231, ext. 1227.

St. Margaret's Episcopal Church, located at 1830 Connecticut Ave. NW, will hold its third annual used book sale on Saturday, April 26, from 9 a.m. to noon. For details, call 202-232-2995 or visit http://www.stmargaretsdc.org.

The Friends of the Reston Regional Library will hold its semi-annual used book sale April 25-27 at 11925 Bowman Towne Center Dr., Reston, Va. Hours are: Friday, April 25, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday, April 26, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Sunday, April 27, noon to 3:30 p.m. Call 703-689-2700.

The second used book and media sale sponsored by Prince of Peace Presbyterian Church, at 1657 Crofton Pkwy, Crofton, Md., will be held on Friday, April 25 (6 p.m. to 9 p.m.) and Saturday, April 26 (9 a.m. to 2 p.m.) with loads of books, DVDs and CDs up for sale. Call 410-721-2313 for details.